Hack Your City: 12 Creative DIY Urbanism Interventions. If city officials won’t do their part to make public spaces more fun, efficient, useful, comfortable and creative, citizens will take matters into their own hands.
DIY urbanism, or ‘hacktivism,’ is the practice of altering urban environments in ways that aren’t officially sanctioned, whether by turning vacant lots into temporary playgrounds, adding swings to bridges, seed-bombing neglected city spaces or knitting giant hats for bus stop shelters. City Swings The spaces under piers, beside bridges and beneath industrial remains are transformed into instant playgrounds with surreptitiously installed swings funded by The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences. The Los Angeles chapter of the group awarded its $1,000 2011 grant to artist Jeff Waldman, who chose underutilized spots around the city to install temporary swings.
DIY Urban Furniture. Parking Day - Parking Day. Mi Casa-Your Casa par Héctor Esrawe et Ignacio Cadena. The High Museum of Art d’Atlanta a demandé aux artistes Héctor Esrawe et Ignacio Cadena de réaliser cette installation interactive pour animer et décorer le parvis du musée.
Cette installation est directement inspirée des marchés d’Amérique du Sud où les gens se retrouvent et échangent. Composé de 40 modules en forme de maison où chacun abrite un hamac, ce lieu invite les visiteurs au repos au dialogue et à la création. Mi Casa-Your Casa est également un lieu disponible aux artistes locaux pour organiser des expositions ou des spectacles.
Pour en savoir plus sur Mi Casa-Your Casa, cliquez ici. 10 Playful Public Works of Art. Matthew Mazzotta: Social Space Architecture. 26 Nov Click to enlarge Boston-based artist Matthew Mazzotta creates participatory public interventions that aim to criticize, raise awareness, and bring a sense of openness to the places we live.
Song Board: Central Saint Martins. 17 Oct Click to enlarge These 2940 yellow and black plastic spheres across a 35m-long wall made up the fun and engaging interactive pop-up installation at London’s King’s Cross station called Song Board.
Designed by the students at Central Saint Martins University of the Arts in London, Song Board invited passers-by to rotate the matrix of spheres and create unique patterns, images, and messages. Some came prepared with pre-arranged displays to print on the board and others just rotated them relentlessly, listening to the sound the balls made when rotated. Song Board was one of the many projects (see also Bus-Tops) put into place by the Mayor’s office throughout the city during the recent Olympic and Paralympic Games. via eye magazine.
João Onofre: Box Sized Die. 10 Jul This isn’t the first time artist João Onofre displays his art installation titled Box Sized Die, nor is it likely to be the last.
It is, however, the first time the installation has gone to London. Consisting of a large soundproof steel cube, the Portuguese artist invites a local Death Metal band to play inside the cramped space both with the door open, and then with it closed, limiting the performance length to how long the band can last before the oxygen runs out. Flederhaus: House of Hammocks. 24 Jul The Flederhaus—a pun off the word fledermaus which means ‘bat’ in German—is a fun structure in Vienna designed by architects Heri & Salli explicitly for hanging around and relaxing.
The open building, situated in the Museum Quarter of the city, houses 28 hammocks on 5 floors that offer great views to one and all at no cost. The inviting hammocks are arranged to allow for meeting and interacting with neighbors. A fun public space for sure. Swing Time: Höweler + Yoon Architecture. 18 Sep It’s a cool glow-in-the-dark playground.
Paprika: Memory Gaps. 1 Aug Click to enlarge Montreal-based graphic design and strategic marketing firm Paprika (previously here) never disappoints.
Checking in to their site for a boost of inspiration I came across their currently exhibited art installation for Aires Libres—an artistic event on St. Catherine Street in Montreal. Trous de mémoire (Memory Gaps) invites visitors to take a walk down memory lane, but there are tricks and humorous discoveries to be made, indicating that what is forgotten is not always lost. For those of us not near Montreal, the experience is nicely captured in the videos below, the second one being a timelapse version of the installation process (with a lovely song by Black Water.)
Memory Gaps (Trous de mémoire) is on view through September 2, 2013. Mi Casa-Your Casa Interactive Installation by Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. The High Museum of Art has unveiled Mi Casa-Your Casa, an ambitious interactive design installation designed by Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena.
The installation has been conceived as part of a two-year initiative to activate the Sifly Piazza and engage the community in the vibrant campus of the Woodruff Arts Center designed by Renzo Piano. Mi Casa-Your Casa is a welcoming space where visitors can play, create and relax. Hammocks, swings, easels, bins of chalk, and buckets of bubble water, among other elements, offer daytime “playtime” options.